Shoulder pain is an extremely common ailment that effects roughly %26 of the entire population. Most of these problems being simple to fix with proper understanding of the structure of the shoulder joints, tendons, ligaments and musculature. In this article I will go over basic shoulder anatomy, understanding what creates shoulder pain, how to heal it, and finally how to effectively train them for hypertrophy and structural strength.
-Structure of the Joint-
Here we have the structure of the shoulder joint. Seems very complex right? Well, it is but, we don’t need to completely memorize it to understand how it works. The shoulder is a ball and socket joint, meaning it is composed of two bones one being a socket shaped hole and the other being a ball that inserts into the socket. All the ligaments and tendons you see are simply connecting all of these structures together and allowing for proper movement.
The most noteworthy parts of this chart are the common problem areas. These being the Acromioclavicular Joint or AC Joint, and ball/socket itself. The AC Joint is commonly sprained mostly via blunt force such as falls. I myself suffered an injury to this joint via a wrestling match. So, let’s take a look at how I and how you could go about fixing an injury like this.
-AC Joint-
The AC Joint is simple enough to heal that most of the time they do not require any medical intervention. The main role of the AC Joint is to handle any overhead/vertical pressing as well as side lateral raising. So, our recovery plan will look to strengthen these attributes slowly and pain free. In the days following the injury it is best to keep it relatively immobilized especially if you experience pain when it is not. This does not mean you should stop moving your shoulder as a whole though. Any form of pain free movement involving the shoulder will help in the recovery process. So, do what you can. Once you are able to move the arm overhead you know your ligaments are starting to heal nicely. From here doing any form of pressing should be our goal. A Landmine Press is a great variation to use as it can be scaled back pretty easily. All you have to do is move further away from the landmine allowing for the movement to be less overhead, taking stress away from the AC Joint. At this point we can also add in lateral raise variations. I recommend use of a very light dumbbell one that does not spark any pain, or a very light resistance band. We should perform the lateral raise with a slight pause and hold at the top of the movement. This is the point in which the joint will be under the most pressure, which is why we want to use a very light resistance. The pause and hold will help strengthen our stabilizing muscles, allowing for a stronger joint.
Speaking of stabilizing muscles, we should also look to strengthen those of the rotator cuff complex. These can be done by performing many variations of external rotation such as a cable external rotation, a lying dumbbell external rotation, or a cable face pull. Lying static holds are amazing as well and can be performed by simply lying on one’s stomach and reaching the arms out to side, down, at a Y, and above the head.
-Shoulder Joint Dislocation-
Another somewhat common ailment a shoulder dislocation occurs when the ball and socket joint become, well, dislocated. This often times requires medical attention to correctly replace the joint. From there the recovery process is similar to that of an AC Joint injury. We focus on pain free movement, and work to strengthen the stability of the shoulder though rotator cuff exercises.
-General Shoulder Pain-
General Shoulder Pain is extremely common, especially in weightlifting. The good news is that it is also extremely easy to fix and prevent. Most shoulder pain is caused by weak stabilizing muscles like those of the rotator cuff complex. So once again we refer to those exercises. Hanging from a bar is also an amazing way to treat shoulder pain. Along with a proper warm up for all of your pressing movements. So, before your bench press session, or while you warm up do some rotator cuff work. External rotation variations, lying static holds, upside down kettlebell pressing, and banded pressing all work great.
-Training Shoulders-
Many men dream of big shoulders, but don’t know the first thing about actually growing them. With other body parts it seems so simple, want a big chest? Do your bench press. Want big legs? Do your squats. But shoulders are a little weird. There is no one exercise that can blow up all three heads of the deltoid. So, we must look to strategically train all of them effectively. These three heads include the front/anterior head, the side/lateral head and the rear/posterior head so, lets break down how to get all of them big.
You may have heard that you don’t need to do front delt isolation, I believe that this is true, and I’ll even explain why. If your program includes any forms of horizontal, incline, or vertical pressing, the front delt is a prime mover. Could you perform some front delt isolation if you really felt like it? Absolutely, but it is often unnecessary to do so. If you chose to, I would suggest only 1-2 sets with a high rep range (15-30).
Side Delts are the real killer when it comes to shoulder training. The side delt doesn’t do much by itself so, it makes it hard to isolate. Currently the best side delt isolation we know of is lateral raise variations, and these are effective but, they are not our only option. The side delt does not need to be purely isolated to grow. In fact, some of the best work for the side delts are compound shoulder exercises. These being your vertical pressing, and face pulls.
The rear delt is one that some people struggle with, but with proper understanding becomes easy to target. The rear delt is worked by almost every pulling exercise you do. So, any form of horizontal, vertical, or diagonal pulling (all of which should be abundant in your program) will target the rear delt just like how the front delt is targeted when pressing.
So, when working your shoulders, look to perform your pressing and pulling and sprinkle in small amounts of isolation work for the side delts, and you should be able to make significant progress. The shoulders are small muscle groups that are very resistant to fatigue, so drop sets, and myo-rep matching are also great for squeezing all the gains out possible as well as generally high frequency.
In terms of exercises, I will list off some of my favorites here. Other than that, I’ve got nothing else to say, so if you enjoyed this article, please show some love and support, spread the knowledge and make some gains.
-Compound Front/Side Delt Exercises-
-OHP/Military Press -Machine Shoulder Press -DB Shoulder Press -Behind The Neck Press
-Side Delt Isolation-
-DB/Cable Lateral Raise -Leaning DB/Cable Lateral Raise -Cable Crossover Lateral Raise -Lengthend Partial Lateral Raise -Lateral Raise Machine
-Compound Side/Rear Delt Exercises-
-Face Pulls -Lu Raises -Super ROM Laterals